, that could really push the republicans to challenging president obama in new way if he has a second term. or to push mitt romney further to the right on spending issues, cuts to the budget, cuts to the federal programs. so this is really going to be a crucial place because so much of policy ends up stopping in the senate. >> and even supreme court decisions or supreme courts nominees possibly, right? >> yea that's a big issue that you're hearing not that much about on the campaign trail because generally republicans tend to vote in favor of republican nominees and democrats tend to vote in favor of democratic nominees. but, they're not talking about that and there's likely to be at least one vacancy in the coming year. >> and how does that what does that do to the tone and tenor of how compromising or uncompromising the senate becomes? >> one thing to keep an eye on is the fight for leadership because if republicans are in either the majority or minority you're going to have this conservative contingent pushing mitch mcconnell, who's currently the minority leader to be more conserva